SwedCham China Insights for the Week of April 01 – April 07

Top news of the week:

Ex-Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou visits mainland China

April 1, 2023

Former Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou left on April 1 for an 11-day trip to mainland China amid simmering tensions across the Taiwan Strait.

China revises plan for aging population, elderly and childcare system

April 2, 2023

China's National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and National Health Commission, has revised and issued an implementation plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan on an active response to the aging population and the construction of an elderly care service system.

China, U.S. vow to advance dialogue, cooperation as heads of state hold phone talks

April 3, 2023

President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden held a telephone call on April 2, in the first engagement between Chinese and US leaders since they met in San Francisco in last November in an effort to stabilize China-US relations.

China's services trade expands rapidly in the first 2 months

April 4, 2023

China’s services trade registered rapid expansion in the first two months of the year, with notable growth observed in travel services, official data showed. The country's services trade totaled 1.19 trillion yuan (about USD$167.88 billion) from January to February, marking an increase of 22.8 percent compared with the same period of last year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

China, U.S. highlight importance of economic and trade ties

April 5, 2023

Economic and trade ties should be the stabilizing force of China-US relations, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said as he co-chaired the first vice-ministerial meeting of the China-U.S. commerce and trade working group with U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Marisa Lago. Wang visited the US from April 2 to 5 at the invitation of the US side.

China formulates plan to strengthen ecological balance and civil transportation systems

April 6, 2023

Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Civil Aviation Administration of China jointly issued a notice aimed at strengthening the management of environmental impact assessments to drive the green development of civil transport airports.

Qingming holiday sparks travel and consumption boom

April 7, 2023

China saw about 119 million domestic passenger trips during the three-day Qingming Festival holiday, up 11.5 percent from the same period in 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The data also showed domestic revenue during the period totaled 53.95 billion yuan (around USD$7.6 billion), up 12.7 percent from the same period in 2019.
 

Insight of the week:

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is on a six-day visit to China from April 4 to 9, her second since July 2023. She arrived in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on April 4 and reportedly arrived in Beijing on April 6 to continue meetings with senior Chinese officials. So far, Yellen has met with Guangdong Province Governor Wang Weizhong, Vice Premier He Lifeng, and Premier Li Qiang.

Yellen made the threat of China’s excess production of electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and other clean energy products to producers in the U.S. and other countries a focus of her second visit to China in nine months. During Yellen’s several rounds of talks with He Lifeng, the two sides agreed to discuss issues such as balanced growth of the US, China and the global economy, financial stability, sustainable finance, and cooperation in countering money-laundering under the China-US economic and financial working group. The Chinese side expressed concern over US economic and trade measures restricting China and responded fully to the issue of production capacity, according to official Chinese media. During Yellen’s meeting with Premier Li Qiang, Yellen told Li that the ability to have difficult conversations has put the two economic superpowers on “a more stable footing” over the past year. Yellen said Washington and Beijing had a “duty” to responsibly manage the complex relationship.  

Chinese state media pushed back against Yellen’s message on excess capacity. State news agency Xinhua said that talking up “Chinese overcapacity” in the clean energy sector created a pretext for protectionist policies to shield American companies. Suppressing China’s EV-related industries will not help the US grow its own, Xinhua said, expressing hope that more headway could be made during Yellen’s visit to break down barriers hindering mutually beneficial cooperation.